Wednesday, March 20, 2013

God's Timing

God's Timing

ByLori Kennedy

…Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in
death.No, it is for God’s glory so that
God’s Son may be glorified through it .”(John 11:4 NIV)

Have
you ever wondered where God is and why He hasn’t answered your prayers?Have you ever felt abandoned by God?Have you felt that He has left you or doesn’t
love you?

Have
you had a prayer answered in a different way than you hoped or expected?

I
always think of that Garth Brooks song, “Unanswered Prayers”.As the song goes, when Garth was in high
school, he used to pray that God would allow him to marry the girl he was
currently dating.Many years later at a
class reunion he reflected back on his life.Then thinking of his current bride, he thanked God for not answering that
high school prayer.

I
wonder if Mary and Martha felt that their prayers had gone unanswered when
Lazarus died before Jesus arrived.Verse
5 and 6 of John Chapter 11 says that Jesus loved
Mary, Martha and Lazarus, yet stayed where He was two days after He heard
Lazarus was ill.He arrived four days
after Lazarus had been buried.Martha
accuses Jesus in verse 21 of chapter 11 of being too late.She states, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”In verse 32 of chapter 11, Mary makes this
exact same accusation.

Why
do you think Jesus did this?Why do you
think He allowed Mary and Martha to suffer this loss?Do you think that they felt that He had
abandoned them, that He did not love them and had not answered their prayers?We know He was burdened for them in their
grief as stated in 11:33.Verse 35 says
that Jesus wept.

Mary
and Martha had seen Jesus heal people before as had the Disciples.Yes, healing was a miracle, but the miracle
of healing had already been witnessed.In
fact, that is exactly why Mary and Martha had called on Jesus, healing was the
anticipated result of requesting His presence.However, the scripture states in 11:4 that this particular miracle was
to be for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.Verse 15 of chapter 11 says that it was so
the disciples may believe.Verse 40
further discloses His purpose by stating, “Did
I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”Maybe, just maybe, God wanted to reveal more
of himself to His faithful followers than had been previously shown to them.

I
had a friend tell me that our being able to see God working in our life is like
the Macy’s Day Parade on Thanksgiving Day.We are just someone in the crowd, only able to see what is exactly in
front of us at that moment.God, on the
other hand, is hovering over the whole parade and can see beginning, middle,
and end.God knows what’s best for our
lives as declared in Romans 8:28 (NIV), “God
works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His
purpose” and in Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV), “For
I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”It is truly daunting to try to see the
Hand of God in the midst of difficult circumstances or to feel His love during
an especially silent time.If you are
going through a tough time, I challenge you to keep your perspective eternal
using the backdrop of the cross as your filter.If you are feeling abandoned and not hearing from God, I laugh and tell
you to hold on tight, because He might be about to reveal His glory in mighty
and powerful ways to you!

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